


you can feel it on the way home

by jabamis



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Eren Being A Sap, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-14
Updated: 2021-01-14
Packaged: 2021-03-18 13:42:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28744188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jabamis/pseuds/jabamis
Summary: He can't believe he's dating someone who is simultaneously a genius and a massive idiot.—Armin swears he’s seeing ghosts. Eren comes to his rescue.
Relationships: Armin Arlert/Eren Yeager
Comments: 7
Kudos: 196





	you can feel it on the way home

**Author's Note:**

> eren being a sap for 2k words and that's all it is  
> anyways, i was having writer's block and went on a tumblr prompt list from like 2014 and one of them was "it’s 3 am and I’m still in the library studying for finals and I’m losing my grip on reality and I think I just saw a ghost." i somehow made this more soft than funny. but we all need that sometimes  
> i'm an angst-writer at heart so sorry if this is TOO corny  
> title from "you are in love" by taylor swift

When Eren’s phone rings at the witching hour, the first thing he does is groan and roll over to decline the call, not even bothering to open his sleep-sealed eyes to check the contact name. The second time it rings, he simply can’t bring himself to move a single muscle in his body, and he lets it ring fully with his arm slung over his eyes. The third time it rings, however, Eren sighs heavily through his nose and accepts it, given the fact that the caller clearly cannot take a hint, and brings it to his ear. “What the hell do you need?”

“Eren?” the voice on the other end says, crackling slightly in the static. Then, there's the weird hiccupy inhale that Eren would recognize anywhere, and the sleep immediately exits his brain, and his blood freezes.

“Armin,” he says, much softer than his original tone, immediately sitting up and running his hands through his hair. He starts moving before he even hears the other boy speak, remembering how Armin said he was going to be out late to study at the library, but he hadn't thought it would be 3-in-the-morning late. Thus, his mind was running wild with the possibilities of Armin being upset or injured. The way the boy sniffled on the other end as Eren was pulling on his pants didn’t do anything to ease those worries. “Armin. Are you still at the library? Are you hurt? Is everything okay?”

“Eren,” Armin wails quietly on the other end. “I’m here. I’m at the library, but I swear, I swear I—” he broke off again to inhale shakily. “Will you come down here? Please? I think I saw a ghost. I’m really scared right now.”

Eren stops dead in the middle of his tracks.

If it were anyone else calling him at this hour to talk about seeing a ghost, he probably would have popped a vein in anger. However, it was his boyfriend, who seemed very distressed, and the fact that he was supposedly seeing spirits was a concerning indicator that Armin was severely sleep-deprived. So, despite the ridiculous phrasing, he truly did need to go down there to help him from working himself to the grave and becoming a ghost that actually haunts the library.

“Okay. Alright. Just stay put, okay? I’ll be there in ten minutes. Can you handle ten minutes?” He’s already grabbing the keys, slipping on his shoes, and heading out of their dorm’s door as he’s saying it, but he doesn’t want to hang up until he gets confirmation. It's a game of damage control, in a way— an upset Armin is likely to go into a severe downward spiral at slight issues and become even more upset over completely unrelated topics, so he needs to make sure he’s placated for the time being before anything else.

“Fine. Y-Yeah, that’s okay. I’m on the ground level by the bookshelves. Please just...hurry.” With that, Armin ends the call. By that time, Eren is power-walking through the dead campus. He cursed the cool early-winter air that blew through his messy hair and thin t-shirt— he’d been in such a panic over the prospect of Armin being upset that he'd hurried outside without thinking twice about it.

He can't believe he's dating someone who is simultaneously a genius and a massive idiot.

The library is not much of a relief from the harsh cold once he reaches it. He finds himself worried that Armin could catch a cold and if the other boy even had a jacket of his own for the walk back. Eren once again curses at himself for leaving his; he would’ve given it to Armin in a heartbeat. He gets ill too easily. Eren thinks about how he should make tea for him when they get back, but then again, Armin probably wouldn’t be able to stay awake long enough, so they’ll just have to pile up all the blankets they have.

He heads toward the back of the building, tired eyes squinting in the fluorescent lights that are turning everything into a hazy color. His mind once again wanders to Armin— he has been working for hours, potentially on a computer, and hasn’t gotten much sleep recently. The lights would hurt his eyes even more. Shit, Eren thinks, did he even remember to bring his glasses? What if he’d been trying to study the whole time without being able to see properly?

Winding through the shelves, Eren’s stomach growls, and he’s suddenly struck with panic over Armin’s eating habits. He tends to forget to eat and that habit is even worse during times of stress— God, Eren frets, who knows how much he’s eaten in the past few days? They’ve both been so busy that they haven’t seen each other much, so he hasn’t been able to make sure Armin was doing okay. But again, Armin won’t be able to stay up late enough for him to eat. Eren thinks maybe he should leave early tomorrow morning to pick up something healthy for him, maybe some of those overpriced vegan pancakes Armin loves that Eren can’t stand.

He rounds the corner. Armin is sitting there, head flat on the book in front of him and wrinkling the pages— something a non-sleep-deprived Armin would consider a crime. His jacket is slung over the back of his chair, his glasses are crookedly hanging from his limp hand, and there’s a protein bar wrapper of the brand Mikasa eats (he’s going to have to thank her later for looking out for him) with only crumbs left in it on the table. The situation is good— though he’d much rather that Armin had been safely asleep under warm sheets after an actual meal hours ago, he’ll take this.

One too-hasty step forward, however, reminds Eren of the problem that brought him here in the first place. When the floor creaks beneath his feet, Armin practically jumps out of his chair. His wild blue eyes lock onto Eren and his arm winds back to presumably throw his glasses, the closest weapon within proximity against an imaginary enemy, before Eren throws his hands up in surrender. The blond boy sighs, slumping so far back against the chair that his entire body almost disappears underneath the table.

“Jeez. Don’t sneak up on me like that. I could’ve taken one of your eyes out with these,” he says.

"That wouldn't do much against a ghost," Eren teases as Armin shoves his textbook into his back without ceremony and pushes his glasses back onto his nose. “I told you I was coming. I wasn’t expecting you to fall asleep so soon. And I don't think so. Your aim wasn’t all that great back when we tried baseball in middle school. I think I’d be fine.”

If looks could kill, Armin’s bloodshot blue eyes narrowing at him would have Eren six feet under, and he couldn’t think of any better way to go, even if it was in the middle of a supposedly-haunted library.

“You know if I tried hard enough, I could do it.”

Of course, Eren thinks. Armin could probably move mountains with his mind if he set his heart to it. But of course, he can't say that or Armin would tease him for being a sap when he’s tired, so he settles for, “You might be right.”

Armin softens at that, shrugging his backpack onto his shoulders and taking a cautionary glance around the library. “Alright. Let’s get out of here quickly. This place gives me the heebie-jeebies.” With that, he took a step forward and immediately stumbles and sways, his frazzled brain unable to coordinate his movements correctly. “Don’t laugh at me,” he says before Eren even laughs.

“Get on my back,” Eren offers, lowering his body down. He balances quickly when Armin takes the suggestion, lacing his arms under his knees, used to the sensation of the extra weight after carrying his smaller friend on his back since elementary school. “It’ll help us outrun the ghosts faster.” Armin whacks him on the head.

“Don’t patronize me. You know you believe in ghosts too.”

“Of course I do," Eren says, positively affronted by the implication that he didn't. "I just don’t understand why there would be one in a college library, of all places.”

“Haven’t you heard? There are rumors about it all the time. I swear, Eren, I heard footsteps up and down the aisles but when I looked to see if anyone was there, there wasn’t anybody. I’m not the only one that’s said something that.”

“Seriously, Armin, it’s probably just another poor soul who hasn’t slept in a couple of days, just like you. Somebody probably thought you were the ghost and ran away.”

Armin sighs at that, pressing his head into the crook of Eren's neck, apparently admitting defeat. He would usually argue his point until the very end, but it seemed like he didn’t find the benefits of the conversation to outweigh the energy it took to keep it going. Eren decides he would count that at his victory as he headed out into the cold night once more, though his only wins were typically when Armin was tired.

By the time they're halfway through the treacherous journey home, it seemed Armin had changed from his irritable and panicky state of exhaustion to a clingy kind. His arms were wound around Eren's neck until his hands could sneak into the collar of his t-shirt, apparently set on using Eren as a human furnace. Eren didn't mind, especially not with Armin's warm breath against his neck. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Armin slides off his back.

“Armin? What’s the problem?” Eren says, but when he turns around, Armin tries to drape his jacket over his shoulders. Eren immediately shoves it back into Armin’s arms, to which the latter boy looks up with earnest confusion, rubbing his sleepy eyes.

“You had goosebumps. I could feel them,” he says simply. “I thought it was fair that if I had it half the time, you could half it the other half. I don’t think it’ll fit you, but you can kinda just...hang it on your shoulders or something. It should help.”

Eren stops. It all comes crashing down on him that he loves this boy, even when he overworks himself until he's seeing ghosts and has to call Eren at 3 a.m. His blonde hair is astray, eyes honest even if tired and half-lidded, his cheeks and nose even rosier than usual because of the temperature. The sight makes it impossible for Eren to resist leaning over and kissing his nose, rewrapping the jacket around him. Armin's blush deepens at that.

“Hop back on. It won’t be much longer. Besides, you know I’ve got a perfect immune system," Eren boasts with a grin, causing Armin to roll his eyes slightly. "You, on the other hand, will get a cold if you’re out here without a jacket, and then I’ll have to deal with you if it happens.”

“You wound me,” Armin says, though he hardly sounds offended as he climbs back on and nuzzles his face back into Eren’s shoulder. “I try to do something nice, and you have to insult my body’s sensitivity to weather. Rude. So mean.” He kisses the exposed skin there, and Eren relishes in the warmth that radiates through his body as a result. No jacket required.

It isn't much longer until they reach the dorm, and Eren is fairly convinced Armin has fallen half-asleep again judging by the steadiness of his breathing. Eren struggles to fit the keys in the lock without jostling him too much, but Armin's a light sleeper, so when the door creaks open, he lifts his head blearily and rubs his eyes.

“Shhh,” Eren says as he sits on the bed, allowing Armin to slide off easily. In response, Armin tears off the puffy jacket and throws it across the room, something he would always scold Eren for doing, but he doesn’t seem to care at the moment by the way he curls up into a ball immediately after committing the grave sin. They’re both thankfully wearing sweatpants, so there’s no annoyingly wrestling out of uncomfortable clothes and into pajamas, though they could both probably use a shower. However, Armin looks so peaceful while getting his much-needed rest that Eren thinks it can wait until tomorrow.

He settles next to him, pulling the covers up to their shoulders, and as Armin nestles in closer to his chest, Eren thinks about how glad he is to have someone to call him in the dead of night.


End file.
